Tuesday, 6 September 2011
Summer Task: 'What is Black British culture?'
Write at least 450-600 words on what you have learnt from the radio programme, include what you think is Black British culture.
From this radio programme I have been able to understand the many ways in which the Black migration from the Caribbean to Britain has changed the modern day culture we live with and have today in Britain.
A major part of the Caribbean culture is festivals it is a chance for the community to come together, interact with each other and celebrate. The African-Caribbean communities also carried on this tradition when they came to Britain. Annually, the Notting Hill Carnival is organised and is the largest street festival within Europe; attracting around 1.5 million people each year.
The Caribbean also brought with them their food now consumed regularly throughout Britain-it was necessary for this change of diet as Caribbean immigrants found differences in diet and the availability of food an uncomfortable challenge. The most recognised Caribbean food brands found within Britain are Dunns River, Jamaican Sunpride, Walkerswood and Grace Foods.
Another way in which British culture has been adopted through the Black British community is through religion. Many Black people continued to practice Non-conformist Protestant denominations along with Evangelical influences including Pentecostalism and Seventh Day Baptism. Many African-Caribbean communities involved Gospel Music; this type of music came to play a part in British cultural life. Afro-Caribbean’s played a major role in establishing British gospel choirs, most recognisable the London Community Gospel Choir.
The language of the former British West-Indies was English, therefore there few communication difficulties between the Black people and White people. However indigenous British people were not used to the Caribbean dialects, creoles and patois spoken by many migrants and their descendants which became challenging when education was involved.
Media is easily influenced by new trends frequently; the African-Caribbean style of acting is no different. It would be hard to imagine some of Britain’s most iconic programmes without the likes of Rudolph Walker (Love Thy Neighbour) and Don Warrington (Rising Damp). The Black community has had a positive impact upon the British entertainment industry; this is obvious with one of the most well-known comedians- Lenny Henry- being of Afro-Caribbean descent.
There is no doubt that the African-Caribbean community has had a great impact on the music we now listen to in Britain. Along with the large-scale migration to Britain, brought a variety of musical styles; it did not take long for these new styles to gain tremendous popularity with the British people. The very first musical element brought with the Windrush was ‘Calypso’. Jamaican music styles reached Britain in the 1960s, becoming the staple music for many British youths; this type of music was known as ‘Ska’. In 1969, the British African Caribbean Ska band Symarip recorded “Skinhead Moonstomp” which had a huge effect on the British Ska scene. The Ska sound and ‘rude boy’ imagery inspired a generation of white working-class youth (especially mods and skinheads) and later helped spawn Britain’s multi-cultural 2 Tone movement in the late 1970s.
To me Black British culture in different to those who do and those who do not accept change. I believe there would be an extreme hole in modern Britain if the Windrush had not made its maiden journey to the Caribbean. So many aspects of what we perceive to be British including music, media, catering, the arts and so much more. The migration of the African-Caribbean has transformed Britain into an amazing open multi-cultural place to live.
Summer Task: Radio Extract
Who is being represented?
This radio extract is based upon the Notting Hill Race Riots of 1958. Therefore both Black people and White people are being represented as the presenter talks about both groups of people. Ultimately the radio extract does mostly mention Black people and their place in society .
What is being represented?
“mass interbreeding”
The extract discusses the issues of Black integration and the violence which has come as a result of the migration.
“I was determined that Britain would never be kept white”
How is the representation constructed? (Communicated?)
This representation is communicated quite simply by the presenter stating the event which took place (Race Riots) and then expanding on what happened although at the same time he is exaggerating by almost taking the words of the Black man and using them out of context; this could be used in a manipulating way to support his own argument.
Monday, 5 September 2011
Summer Task:The Windrush Years (1948-1998)
-Society has gradually adapted to these changes the 'black' community have played a huge role in British history
-1948 still counting the cost of WWII
-half a million people migrated from the West Indies
-felt as if they were 'intuders' and 'foreigners'
-they brought colour,music and life
-'you can only suppress people for so long'
-Britain can now accommodate the Black population
-June 21st 1948-Windrush arrived
-5,000 miles to Britain
-everything which was seen being done in Britain was repeated in the Caribbean
-people were brought up to consider Britain as the 'Mother Country' and to respect the royal family
-'the King was our King, the flag was our flag'
-Hitler compared Black people to Jews and considered them to be the same
-West Indians and Britain's not only lived together they died together
-52 killed from Trinidad alone is battle
-'we fought as men'
-Noel Brown entertained the British troops
-Noel Brown announced the war was over to a room full of people
-the attitude changed abruptly
-'about time they went back to their homes'
-'unecessary evils'
-250 left to go back to the Caribbean on holiday
-£28 and ten shillings for a one way fare on the Empire Windrush, there was no shortage of takers
-A hurricane in the Caribbean destroyed all the crops, few people worked as the economy was suffering
-The Empire Windrush left from a harbour in Kingston on the 24th of May 1948
-Arrived 3 weeks after leaving Kingston
-June 21st 1948 docked in Essex
-500 Jamaicans
-'British Empire citizens coming to the Mother Country with good intent'
-'London this lovely city'
-excitement was tinged with uncertainty
-feared what was going to happen
-they saw chimneys and thought they were factories so assumed their were jobs
-most arrivals had no where to live and no jobs to go to
-the Government housed them in an air raid shelter under Clapham Common
-In the 1950s a quarter of a million West Indians had arrived in Britain
-Many people believed Britain was dark and grey
-those coming from the Caribbean had a distinctive taste in music which was not suited to the British people
-the K.B.W (Keep Britain White) was established in an attempt to stop this Caribbean migration
-the Black population had ,made it clear that they were not going back to where they had originally come from
-the Black people were very different to the White British as they came from completely different places, so they handed themselves in a different way. They washed themselves with a specific oil which the British people did not like the smell of
-new arrivals were not well accepted and began to feel isolated as the minority in a predominantly white country
-Black people and White people did not interact creating segregation
-referred to as the ‘Dark folks’
-the West Indians found comfort within their communities
-romance across the colour line came as a shock
-many of those who migrated were single and unmarried
-Black men ‘sexual deviants’
-‘no decent girl would go out with a black man’
-the mixed colour relationships were frowned upon by the white families and the general public
-by the mid 1950s immigration had exploded over 20,000 a year were travelling across the Atlantic
-housing caused the sharpest conflict
-it had been suggested through the increasing number of West Indian home owners that they had been raising money through prostitution
-brought methods of raising money from the Caribbean to allow people to buy houses
-this caused a problem and speculation over the gain of money
-racial inequality was met with violence
-they created an industry of rebuilding bombsites they joint with the Irish to do this
-Summer of 1958 in Nottingham there was a Race Riot; they were not prepared to deal with this racial abuse any longer
-Riots began in London
-White people began using petrol bombs in the homes of the Black people
-these violent acts had not been seen in Britain
-the epicentre of these riots was Notting hill where White people would gather to attack the Black people
-the British police took the side of the White people even though those being attacked were the Black people
-the last riot took place on the 1st of September
-only 9 White youths were arrested as a result of the riots they were arrested for their violence and remained in prison for 4 years
-In the May of 1959 a West Indian man was fatally stabbed by 3 ‘Teddy Boys’ however no one was charged for the murder
-Eventually the White people began realising the violence had to come to an end, after understanding the extent of the violence and the horror of the stabbing the White people paid respect to the West Indian at his funeral
-Mosley was blamed for the stabbing
-White and Blacks were reacting and responding to each other in a different way
-5 months later Mosley was forced to retire from politics
-‘guests in this country’ this changed and the West Indians expressed their opinions and attitudes
-a unique thing was introduced to Britain
-As the 60s began a new music type was introduced ‘Ska’ which was introduced to London
-‘My Boy Lollipop’ major music breakthrough
-Mixing was not confined to the dancefloor
-It became fashionable for a White woman to be with a Black man, it was a revelation
-Educated/cultured people mixed with the Black people
-Black men became a fascination for wealthy White people, this fascination caused scandal
-Christine Keeler was a call girl and was seeing two West Indian men simultaneously, the two men clashed over the incident-this culminated to a political scandal and almost the breakdown of British Government
-ordinary Black families tried fitting into the British way of life
-West Indians were refused by the Church because they were scared that they would lose the White congregation
-‘thrown back on their own tradition’
-the Pentecostal Church
-they found comfort, counselling and healing at this place, they supported one another and could get financial support
-By the mid 1960s wife and children began migrating with the men
-the Blacks began settling and did not want to go home
-‘take calculated risks’ the migrants
-Martin Luther King emerged and began discussing how racial equality could be achieved
-In Bristol
-It took 4 months of boycotting to make the bus companies stop discriminating
-Paul Stevenson brought this matter to the public
-No laws against racism existed in England/Britain
-When Labour came into power they made sure no racial discrimination law against Blacks would be introduced, Labour came into power in 1964
-It took Labour a year and a half to introduce the race relations act
-Malcolm X visited Britain
-Michael X most well known and controversial figure in politics
-he was arrested and sentenced for 18 months
-John Lennon and his wife shaved their hair and donated it to Michael X’s society
-there was confusion over whether he was doing any good, couldn’t tell if he was being serious
-Michael X went back to Trinidad , he was not the leader of the Black Movement-he was found guilty of two murders and was hanged
-the late 1960s was a time of liberal reform and social change
-1966 The National Front was founded they had an immediate impact
-‘If you want a nigga neighbour vote labour’
-white unease over the influx of Asian immigrants to the West Midlands was exploited by the Wolverhampton MP Enoch Powell
-‘In 15 or 20 years time the Black man will have the whip hand over the White man’
-‘Like the Roman, I seem to see the Rover Tiber foaming with much blood’
-Powell claimed he was speaking the truth of what others only dared to mutter
-he was removed from the Conservative party with 48 hours of making the speech
-3/4 of the parties’ followers agreed with Enoch Powell
-Students and left wing supporters said they were against Powell, whereas Dockers took to the streets to back Enoch, they thought no more immigrants should be allowed in
-Enoch received 50,000 letters of support
-Black families were kept inside especially the children
-the Black community felt threatened
-January 1981, fire in South London home, 13 Black children died, sparked the wave of protest relating back to 1948
-resistance to the Black British presence had been growing for 30 years
-Britain
-3 times as many Black men were unemployed compared to White men
-the Black children began to feel like outsiders
-‘colour-bar policy’
-church halls were used to create a club scene
-‘society seemed alien and cold’
-Bangladeshi people immigrated in the 1970s
-it became common for people to believe Black people would fail
-large amount of Black children were considered to be ‘educationally subnormal’
-conflict between the police and Black youth was not new during the 70s it first began in the 50s
-local people organised a protest in August 1970 showing they miscommunication with the police
-9 Black people were charged for the protest
-late 50s early 60s people were worried about being attacked
-‘being Black and being on the streets was very frightening’
-many police believed they were protecting society
-the Black people began organising protection from the police for their children
-the Notting Hill Carnival used to represent the Caribbean culture until it became a violent scene in 1976
-‘Rampage at the Carnival’
-it was hard to understand why the Black people were not being accepted
-Bob Marley eventually would gain recognitions across the British music scene
-‘trouble out of tribulation’
-Rastafarians
-Reggae and Rasta became a way of life for the Black youth and they used it to cope with racism
-Many were attracted to the religion
-this would become a way in which the Blacks could build a Black British community
-a significant racial march through a predominantly Black area, Lewisham
Summer Task: Definitions
Identity-the ways in which people define themselves as belonging to certain social groups, whether they are racial, national, religious, or connected with disability or sexual orientation.
“Identity is complicated-everybody thinks they’ve got one”-David Gauntlett
Collective Identity-the concept of a collective identity refers to a set of individual’s sense of belonging to a particular group or collective. From the perspective of the individual, the collective identity forms a part of his or hers personal identity.
“A focus on identity requires us to pay closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences for social groups” –David Buckingham
Colonialism- The policy/practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country. Also, occupying it with settlers and exploiting it economically.
“The theory of electronic colonialism extends the issue to global cultural issues and the impact of major multi-media conglomerates, ranging fro, Viacom, Time Warner, Disney, News Corp, Sony to Google and Microsoft with the focus on the hegemonic power of these mainly US-based communication giants.” –Wiki
Post Colonialism- (post-colonial theory) is a specifically post-modern intellectual discourse that consists of reactions to, and the analysis of, the cultural legacy of colonialism. Post-colonialism comprises a set of theories found amongst anthropology, architecture, philosophy, film, political science, human geography, sociology, feminism, religious and theological studies, and literature. The ultimate goal of post-colonialism is accounting for and combating the residual effects of colonialism on cultures.
Syncretism- the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures or schools of thought. (Amalgamation-process of combining or uniting multiple entitles into one individual form)
Post-Modernism- A set of ideas that replaced modernism as a way of interpreting society and culture. Postmodernism covers a wide range of philosophical, sociological, psychological and critical perspectives. Its key characteristics are disbelief in the idea of objective meaning. From a postmodernist point of view, there is no such thing as ‘truth’, only individual ways of interpreting the world. Postmodernist narratives tend to be highly self-reflexive and make extensive use of irony. Postmodernist criticism is generally interested in the ways that the appearance of meaning is created.
-Media & Film Studies Handbook (2007)
Urban Music- a genre of music covering such styles as Hip-Hop, Drum and Bass, R’n’B and garage.
–Mediadictionary.com
–Mediadictionary.com
Urban music was defined by the recordings of rhythm and blues or soul artists with broad crosser appeal. Urban contemporary began as an American radio format designed to appeal to advertisers who felt that “black radio” would not reach a wide enough audience. –Britannica.com
Imperial ‘Other’- relating to an empire, emperor, or empress. –Dictionary.reverso.net
Mediation- the process by which the media select, alter, interpret, edit or invent aspects of the world before presenting it to the audience in the form of representations. There is an important difference between mediated experience and ones direct personal experience. As a society we sometimes have more faith in the reality of mediated experience than in our own (e.g. the fascination with celebrities or the phenomenon of moral panics). According to the tabloid press, Britain
-Media & Film Studies Handbook (2007)
Hegemony- crudely, the power one social group wields over all the rest. However, hegemony is a more elusive and complex concept than this, involving not only the exercise of naked military and cultural power, but also the acceptance of this domination by the less powerful groups. History is full of examples, but in the modern era, the very fact that the USA is routinely referred to as the worlds only super power, despite the existence of China, serves to illustrate the stranglehold that the idea of supreme American power has on the popular imagination. One example of American hegemony is the cinema industry: Hollywood’s ownership and control over distribution and exhibition in most countries of the worlds has resulted in films made in Southern California being regarded as the norm by audiences worldwide, although the lifestyles and attitudes on show in the these films are very often radically different to local experience and tradition. Antonio Gramsci put forward the best-known explanation of hegemony, arguing that the ruling elite always makes great efforts to persuade the rest of the population that maintaining the status quo is ‘common sense’. This involves convincing them that supporting the interests of the elite is in their own interests.
-Media & Film Studies Handbook (2007)
Representation- (i) ‘showing’. This is a key concept in the analysis of media products. At a basic level, we can say that all media are forms of representation. A news broadcast represents to the audience events that have happened; a science-fiction film represents things that have not happened. However, the people involved in making the representation (the writers, the presenters or actors, the editors) are all governed by their own beliefs, values and attitudes. This means that no representation in the media is ever objective. Most media products tend to reproduce dominant ideologies in the way that they represent the world. This has led many minorities to complain that they are misinterpreted in media texts.
-Media & Film Studies Handbook (2007)
Youth Subculture- a generic term for the behaviour, interests and fashion adopted by young people. Teenagers as a demographic group did not really exist until the 1950s, before which time people were considered either 'adults' or 'children'. For various reasons, a new social group emerged at that time, with four main characteristics:
-extensive free time and for responsibilities
-economic power, money to spend on entertainment
-a strong interest in media products, especially pop music, TV and film
-a desire to be markedly different from both children and adults in dress, language and behaviour
These characteristics make youth culture very interesting (i.e. profitable) to the media industries. Youth subcultures were less conventional in dress attitude and for choice of media products. For example, the term 'middle youth' has been coined to identify a significant segment of the adult population who continue to be interested in the products of youth culture. the distinctions between youth cultures are also much less clear than previously. Nevertheless, the youth market and youth culture continue to be massively important to the media industries.
-Media & Film Studies Handbook (2007)
Saturday, 20 August 2011
BBC Radio Extract
Street, rice and peas, ghetto, low-slung trousers, grime - all things many people link with black British culture. But what exactly is black British culture? Does it still exist and do you have to be black to be part of it?
- - Food (yam, chicken)
- - Caribbean food
- - Black style-fashion allowed them to feel more comfortable
- - Heritage
- - Thought of Britain as the mother land
- - Patois
- - Popular symbol-Jamaican patois
- - Elements of everyday life
- - Embrace the lifestyle you are in
- - May lose the original culture you are from but it is constantly developing
- - Embracing leads to harmony in communities
- - Do not have to be the colour to embrace the culture
- - Adjusting to new life wasn’t easy
- - Half a dozen people living in one house
- - Had to find their own way of socialising because they weren’t able to go into many of the white peoples places of socialising
- - Working allowed black people to get some acceptance
- - Dressing up well on Sundays
- - Black people wanted to look the best
- - Prejudice made black people resist keeping up their culture
- - Began mixing the two generations by bring children over along with parents so they would be growing up with the white children
- - Afro, large trousers, john Lennon type sunglasses
- - Reggae music
- - Early 80s mix of English and black clothes
- - 90s impact of America- hip-hop
- - baseball cap, puffer jackets, low-slung jeans
Wednesday, 10 August 2011
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
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